Abstract
BackgroundThe human inferior frontal junction area (IFJ) is critically involved in three main component processes of cognitive control (working memory, task switching and inhibitory control). As it overlaps with several areas in established anatomical labeling schemes, it is considered to be underreported as a functionally distinct location in the neuroimaging literature. While recent studies explicitly focused on the IFJ's anatomical organization and functional role as a single brain area, it is usually not explicitly denominated in studies on cognitive networks. However based on few analyses in small datasets constrained by specific a priori assumptions on its functional specialization, the IFJ has been postulated to be part of a cognitive control network. Goal of this meta-analysis was to establish the IFJ’s connectivity profile on a high formal level of evidence by aggregating published implicit knowledge about its co-activations. We applied meta-analytical connectivity modeling (MACM) based on the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method without specific assumptions regarding functional specialization on 180 (reporting left IFJ activity) and 131 (right IFJ) published functional neuroimaging experiments derived from the BrainMap database. This method is based on coordinates in stereotaxic space, not on anatomical descriptors.ResultsThe IFJ is significantly co-activated with areas in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, medial frontal gyrus / pre-SMA, posterior parietal cortex, occipitotemporal junction / cerebellum, thalamus and putamen as well as language and motor areas. Results are corroborated by an independent resting-state fMRI analysis.ConclusionsThese results support the assumption that the IFJ is part of a previously described cognitive control network. They also highlight the involvement of subcortical structures in this system. A direct line is drawn from works on the functional significance of brain activity located at the IFJ and its anatomical definition to published results related to distributed cognitive brain systems. The IFJ is therefore introduced as a convenient starting point to investigate the cognitive control network in further studies.
Highlights
The human inferior frontal junction area (IFJ) is critically involved in three main component processes of cognitive control
Peak coordinates from published human functional magnetic resonance imaging studies accumulated in the BrainMap database have previously been integrated in order to delineate the functional connectivity of designated brain regions based on their co-activation profiles using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method [12,13,14]: Activation coordinates reported together with peaks within a defined seed region are retrieved from the database
The fronto-insular co-activations comprised an area of the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on the middle frontal gyrus, confluent ventro-lateral prefrontal areas with neighboring peak coordinates in the inferior frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus, a posterior dorsal area predominantly in the precentral gyrus (BA 4 and 6) and parts of the anterior insula
Summary
The human inferior frontal junction area (IFJ) is critically involved in three main component processes of cognitive control (working memory, task switching and inhibitory control) As it overlaps with several areas in established anatomical labeling schemes, it is considered to be underreported as a functionally distinct location in the neuroimaging literature. We applied meta-analytical connectivity modeling (MACM) based on the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method without specific assumptions regarding functional specialization on 180 (reporting left IFJ activity) and 131 (right IFJ) published functional neuroimaging experiments derived from the BrainMap database. This method is based on coordinates in stereotaxic space, not on anatomical descriptors. A similar coactivation approach has been used to build a voxel-wise functional connectivity map of the human brain using the BrainMap database in June 2006 with 825 articles available [17]
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